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Topic: Good News, Everyone! (Read 17273 times)

Haarlem, The Netherlands - 9 February 2011 - Videogames publisher Iceberg Interactive and game development company Blind Mind Studios have their heads far above the clouds now that they have come to a publishing agreement for Star Ruler, the space RTS for PC. Star Ruler will help players obtain galactic domination from September 2011 onwards.

Iceberg Interactive CEO Erik Schreuder says: "Star Ruler is a great looking game that actually makes you feel like you are in space, from enjoying a stellar-size view for strategic moves to zooming in to the thick of the ship-to-ship combat action when needed. We will hold back the retail release until the game has reached its full potential, something the developer is continuing to work very hard on, while extending its core of followers, a core that we aim to greatly expand on with the in store release later this year."

Andrew Ackermann, owner of Blind Mind Studios says: "Blind Mind Studios is proud to partner with Iceberg Interactive to bring Star Ruler to store shelves. We hope players are as excited as we are for the upcoming retail release; the studio is in full swing, preparing the game for launch. It's going to be something special."

Although the game has had its initial digital release at the end of 2010, the development team of Blind Mind Studios has been and will be working on new gameplay features, additional content and a number of enhancements that will all be included in Iceberg's retail release, as well as patched into Iceberg's digital version. A complete list of final features, including bonus materials for the boxed version, will be made public when closer to the retail release.

Iceberg Interactive will be releasing the exclusive boxed version of Star Ruler into retail stores throughout Europe, Australia, South-East Asia and various other territories. Non-exclusive digital rights are also included in the publishing deal. Plans for localized versions are not final but a German version is certain.

Congradulation but now I regret buying this game. This game was made great because updates where free and suggestions could be made by y the players and not just the hundred or so "independent beta testers" Our suggestions actualy had a chance to get implemented. I am also sad to see the "Exclusive" to the box version I wish I had known that to get the full game I would need to wait to purchase it in stores. This was a game I played regularly and was hoping to see improvement on it for a long time based off of genuine ideas and wants of your player base. Congratulations on your break I am happy for you just sad to see the beginnings of the death of a great game.

I think you misunderstood something. There is no exclusive-to-box version of Star Ruler, rather they are the only ones who will be managing a retail release. We'll continue to update everyone's versions of Star Ruler for the foreseeable future. I don't see why our financial stability could be considered the death of the game.

I think his point was deadlines and demands leading to disregard for the community and poor products. Justified in most cases, but I believe one of you mentioned something about staunch independence, and thats just fantastic.

Firgof also mentioned exclusive box content or something. A little strange, but I had planned to buy the box anyways assuming it ever hit.

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As to non-exclusive digital rights; does this mean I can loan the game to my friend as an attempt to convince him to buy or, or will you guys come sue me for that?

As far as we're concerned: Don't abuse that privilege. It's your game; we don't sell a 'license' to play the game but the game itself from our vantage -- the EULA you agreed to says as much. I think most of us would be okay with you showing the game to a friend (though that's really what the demo is for) but we're not really OK with people just throwing copies of the game around haphazardly.

But that's not really what 'non-exclusive digital rights' means. It means that the Publisher doesn't claim the sole right to digitally distribute the game (e.g. we would have to cancel our distribution with Steam and other networks, etc.).

Thank you for clearing that up. I did misunderstand and I am glad you will continue to allow people to update their games digitally. Its not your financial security that will kill the game but a lot of games start out with independent developers and then publishers come along make their player base huge but in return they demand a lot of compensation; content changes, change implementations, different development teams you see it with music, movies, plays and games it might not happen with this game their are a few exceptions to the rule but a rule is a rule for a reason.